The 17th edition of the curated by festival takes place in Vienna from September 15 to October 17, 2026. Each year, twenty-four Vienna-based galleries invite international curators to respond to a changing theme in the form of an exhibition. This year’s theme is LOVE.
Who Is Ariana Reines
American poet, playwright, performer, and translator Ariana Reines wrote this year’s opening essay on love. She was born in 1982 in Salem, Massachusetts. She is the author of several books, including A Sand Book (2019), which made the National Book Award longlist, and The Rose (2025). Her play Telephone (2009), which won a prestigious Obie Award, was also staged at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin.
Reines is also a translator of Baudelaire and the French collective Tiqqun. In her essay, she poses a provocative question: why would Vienna’s galleries need to bring in an American poet to speak about love, when it’s Vienna that should know it best.
Vienna, the City of Psychoanalysis
Reines herself notes in her essay that Vienna is the birthplace of psychoanalysis, as well as the city of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. According to her, there’s a paradox hidden in that. A city that invented an entire science of the inner life of love and desire now needs a stranger to speak to it about love. For Reines, this is a sign that love has stopped being a central, foundational force in our societies.
Festival Headquarters: mumok
This edition, for the first time, has its festival headquarters directly inside a museum. That museum is mumok, the Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien. Visitors will find festival information there, all tours will begin from this location, and they can also explore the museum’s own collection.
The building itself carries a striking story. It’s a monolithic cube of basalt lava, designed by architects Ortner & Ortner. It opened in 2001, just one week after the terrorist attacks in New York, an unintended but symbolic coincidence for a museum dedicated to, as one description aptly put it, the ruptures of the twentieth century.
The collection itself came about through a donation by German industrialist Peter Ludwig. He gave Vienna his Pop Art collection, including works by Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Rauschenberg, on the condition that the city build a dedicated museum to house them.
Who’s Taking Part
Twenty-four Vienna galleries will take part in the festival, each paired with its own invited curator. Among the curators, you’ll find names like Francesca Gavin, Chus Martínez, Amalia Ulman, and Milan Ther.
The Festival’s History
The festival was founded in 2009 as a platform for artistic dialogue, funded by the city of Vienna and led directly by its galleries. Since May 2025, the festival has been led by Attilia Fattori Franchini and Christina Linher as co-directors.
Where and When
curated by 2026, Vienna. Opening weekend September 11–13, 2026, festival running through October 17, 2026. For the full programme, visit curatedby.at.
